The 45^th Conference of the Caribbean Customs Law Enforcement Council (CCLEC) was held in the Cayman Islands from June 5-9, 2023. Twenty-five member administrations and a number of strategic partners attended the conference which took place at the Westin Hotel hosted with the full support of the Director and staff of the Customs Border Control Service.

Mr Ian Saunders of the USA, a candidate for the post of Secretary General of the World Customs Organization (WCO), delivered the Keynote address. In his address, Mr Saunders shared his vision for leading the WCO to provide high-quality, responsive services to its members by drawing on its rich past, optimizing present efforts, and driving Customs toward a safe, prosperous, and inclusive future.   He highlighted the intersection of WCO work with matters of importance to CCLEC members and the importance of cultivating customs cooperation within the WCO as well as beyond WCO membership.

The conference showcased a number of presentations of best practice initiatives and progress made on reforms by regional and international Customs administrations including Bermuda, Cayman Islands Jamaica, Turks and Caicos’ Islands, India Customs Service, and the World Customs Organisation. The meeting also received presentations and pledges of support from the Caribbean Technical Assistance Centre (CARTAC), the Institute of Export and International Trade, and the Western Europe RILO.

I wish to take this opportunity to extend greetings to all member administrations as we usher in the New Year. 2023 will be a pivotal year for the Caribbean Customs community as we work together to restore our position on the regional landscape particularly in law enforcement, contributing to border security, efficiency in trade matters and effective revenue protection and collection.

Our number priority is to complete the transition from CCLEC to the Caribbean Customs Organisation (CCO) by finalizing the ratification process for the new CCO Treaty within the respective member countries. This will be an immediate boost to the image of this organisation and will certainty help with the realignment of our strategic goals and determining a new direction based on membership needs and priorities.

Customs Administrations are essential to fulfill the mandates of their respective governments by working with other agencies on the national front. There is an increasing awareness of the urgency to cooperate on a regional basis through engagement with established institutions involved in trade and related matters. The success of our region is heavily dependent on engendering a cooperative ethos within a regional space pregnant with new opportunities and possibilities for collaboration.  The current environment of fierce competition for limited resources and overlapping agendas must be replaced by a recognition of the respective areas of competence and strengths and a genuine effort to work together by forging better relationships between customs administrations, the business communities and other regional partner organisations.

Congratulations to the Customs fraternity on this special day which has been designated as International Customs Day by the WCO. This year the chosen theme, “Scaling up Customs Digital Transformation by Embracing a Data Culture and Building a Data Ecosystem,” is very fitting as the pandemic has acted as a most powerful catalyst to force many countries to accept technology as a fundamental part of their business culture.
Digitization of all Customs procedures is the way forward and a strategy to exploit all data is critical to assist with decision making. Today every Customs administration has an automated system that facilitates online submission of cargo and passenger information and declaration processing. However, to maximize collected data usage, Customs must use technological solutions to enhance its effectiveness to ensure compliance. Therefore, Customs must quickly develop or adopt existing analytical tools and enhance departmental, human resource capacity to assist with the daily, functional usage of data in all border-related activities.